The Ultimate Guide to Calisthenics Workout to Build Strong Physique

A calisthenics workout is a form of exercise routine which is extremely popular in the fitness industry. Fitness enthusiasts around the world have often spoken positively about calisthenics workout, and encouraged others to at least try it out.

Before understanding calisthenics workout plans, you should understand the type of workout it is and how to make best use of it as a beginner.

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What is Calisthenics Workout?

In simple terms, a calisthenics workout plan uses your own bodyweight as the resistance. Therefore, you won’t be using free-weights or machines when you’re following calisthenics workout plans.

In calisthenics, you’ll be instead focusing on building your relative strength. The basics of building muscle and a strong physique remain the same for calisthenics and strength training. However, when it comes to progressive overload, you can only do a few different angles with calisthenics, although you can increase the resistance significantly during resistance training.

Ideally, you should implement a calisthenics routine into your overall routine to improve your balance, core strength, and relative strength.

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Calisthenics workout plans

Now that you know more about the workout plan, you need to learn about the most common exercises practiced in calisthenics. It’s important to remember that calisthenics are needed to drive muscle growth.

1) Lats Pullover: Works on Lat Muscles

Lat pullover (Image via Athlean X's YouTube)

To do lats pullover:

• Lie down flat on a mat.
• Hold onto something stable and fixed near your head.
• Keep your body extended.
• Drive your legs into the air by pulling your arms down.
• You should engage your lats and let those muscles do the pulling instead of letting your abdominal muscles take over.
• It will create an overload on the lat muscles.

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2) Chin-Up: Works on Biceps and Lat Muscles

Chin-ups (Photo by Charlotte Karlsen on Unsplash)

To do a chin-up:

• Hold a chin-up or pull-up bar with both hands in a supinated grip.
• Allow your body to hang and use your core to stabilize yourself.
• Engage the biceps and the lats, and pull your body upwards.
• Keep some distance between the bar and yourself.
• Pull yourself up until your shoulders are at the bar’s level.
• Steadily let yourself down as your muscles relax.

A wider grip would allow you to put more pressure on your lats while a shoulder-width grip puts more focus on the biceps.

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3) Push-Up: Works on Chest and Triceps

Push-ups (Photo by Fortune Vieyra on Unsplash)

To do push-ups:

• Lie down flat on your stomach.
• Put your palms beside your chest and on the floor.
• Turn your feet so your toes touch the floor.
• Engage your pectoral muscles and push yourself off the ground.
• Move your body upwards while keeping your spine straight.
• Lower yourself steadily to come back to the starting position.

A close-grip push-up works on your tricep muscles, while a hand-stand or pike push-up will work on the shoulders.

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4) Glute Ham Raise: Works on Your Hamstrings

Glute ham raise (Image via Athlean X's YouTube)

To do glute ham raises:

• Go on your knees and keep your upper body straight from the hips.
• Lock your ankles under a hook or a bar.
• Keeping your shins and calves on the floor, bend forward from the hips.
• Once you’re close to the floor, pull yourself back up using your hamstrings.
• You will feel the pressure on your hamstrings as you move forward and back up.
• You can drop till the floor and use your hands to push yourself back up as a beginner.

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5) Hanging Leg Raises: Works on Core Muscles

Hanging leg raises (Photo via Unsplash/ Karolis Milisauskas)

To do hanging leg raises:

• Hold a pull-up bar in a pronated grip.
• Hang your legs/extend your legs towards the floor.
• Use your core to stabilize your upper body.
• Raise your legs from your hips using your core muscles.
• The idea is to control every rep to ensure your core muscles are properly worked on.

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Calisthenics workout plans for beginners focus on basic movements to allow the muscles to understand the pull and push movements. Once the muscle groups are used to the movements, you should push it to the next level by changing the angle or trying a difficult variation.

Nevertheless, you should not focus only on calisthenics workout if the goal is to unlock your body’s full potential. In such cases, you should try a mixture of calisthenics workout and full-body strength training.